How To Make Yourself A Better Driver

by Bob Hagin

August 6, 2001

"Driving is a privilege and not a right." These sage words were in
the first driver's license preparation booklet that I studied to first
get my driver's license. The year was 1947 and in those days, you could
get a California driver's license at age 14 under "special"
circumstances. Being a whiner, I persuaded my mother to authenticate the
premise that my being able to drive her to her night-shift job was
crucial to her safety and the well-being of our family. It wasn't, of
course, but the ruse worked and I got my learner's permit.

After some harrowing driving lessons with my brother Don as the
instructor, I took my behind-the-wheel test in downtown Oakland and
failed. I didn't stop at a stoplight and wound up blocking traffic on
the main intersection of that city. Fortunately, I passed some weeks
later. Now 54 years later, I'm convinced that I'm a good driver but
NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) statics state
that most of us are not the safe, heads-up pilots we believe ourselves
to be, and that all of us, from novices who are just learning to drive,
to road-veterans who have been driving for decades, have things to
learn. These are the better-driver venues I've come up with:

GET A MOVING VIOLATION CITATION - In most states, if you get a
ticket for a minor driving violation, you get the option of either
paying the fine and having the information go on your insurance record
or having the infraction dismissed on the proviso that you go to traffic
school. If you find yourself in this situation, take an on-site course.
They're usually one-day weekend events, eight or so hours in duration
and if you keep an open mind, you'll probably learn something that will
make you a better driver. The videos are somewhat corny and comical in
order to keep viewers awake and on occasion a bit gory although those
"scene of the accident" films are now out of style. None of them are
very entertaining but a couple are hosted by comedians. As an
alternative to actually sitting in a classroom with a dozen or so other
lawbreakers, there are several dozen officially sanctioned cyber-traffic
schools on the internet. I had to attend a traffic school some years ago
and was chagrined to find that the instructor was a moonlighting teacher
from the high school where I taught. He made great sport of my plight in
the teacher's lunchroom the following Monday.

ENROLL IN A DRIVER TRAINING SCHOOL - There are many millions of
adults in the U.S. who don't have a driver's license and for whatever
reason, suddenly find it necessary to learn to drive. Getting the permit
to learn is the easy part and from then on, things get tougher. The best
method of getting hands-on experience is to sign up with a state-
licensed driving school. The instructors are certified to teach and the
training cars are usually required to be safety-inspected every six
months or so. In most cases, the schools guarantee that you'll get your
driver's license no matter how long it takes. In some cases, it takes a
long, long time. Being "old-school," I tend to think that everyone in
this country was waiting with baited breath for their local Department
of Motor Vehicles office to open the day they were old enough to take
the driver's test. I was recently at our DMV office on another matter
and after watching the line of people waiting to take the road test, I
realized that most weren't pink-checked teens.

ATTEND RACING DRIVER'S SCHOOL - While racing driver schools mainly
concentrate on students who want to develop such skills as trailing-
brake through a turn, drafting for maximum "pull," proper apex approach
and other aspects of wheel-to-wheel competition, many of them offer
"street" courses that concentrate on behind-the-wheel accident
avoidance, reactions to abrupt changes in road surfaces, etc. The latter
used to be simulated on a skid-pad that consisted of a paved area
covered with motor oil to which a coating of water was continually added
to simulate driving on ice. I'm told that this technique is passe now
and that modern schools like the Bondurant academy in Phoenix use an
under-the-car device that has the same effect, but is controlled by the
on-board instructor. An interesting course offered by the folks at
Bondurant is their Executive Protection Program. In it, chauffeurs learn
high-speed cornering to avoid pursuing bad guys, how to make 180-degree
turns within an area no wider than the length of the car and other
techniques that go contrary to a chauffeur's normal low, slow and smooth
driving style. Driving schools of this caliber can be found in the
classified sections in the back of AutoWeek, Car And Driver and other
enthusiast magazines.

Everybody would like to be considered a "good" driver but it means
different things to different people. There are many shortcomings that
most of us are willing to confess to - but driving isn't one of them.